RIVIERA BEACH ASKS WEST PALM TO SEEK HOUSING GRANT

City commissioners agreed Monday to study whether the city can apply for a federal Housing and Urban Development grant to help pay for a 520-unit apartment complex in Riviera Beach.

Riviera Beach officials and officials of the proposed development asked West Palm Beach for help after discovering that neither Riviera Beach nor Palm Beach County was eligible for the Urban Development Action Grant under the guidelines for the program.

Riviera Beach City Manager William Wilkins said his city does not have the required population of 50,000 to participate in the program and that Palm Beach County income levels are above the limits for participation in the program.

West Palm Beach has the appropriate demographics to be eligible for the program, Wilkins said.

"I personally think that we all live in one community -- Palm Beach County," West Palm Beach Mayor Carol Roberts said. "I'm willing to help as long as it's not going to cost us a great deal of money. I think we both (cities) need this type of housing."

Wilkins said if the project were built through the cooperation of West Palm Beach in the grant appliication, West Palm Beach residents would be given equal consideration with Riviera Beach residents in gaining admission into the development.

He said, given the need for low- and moderate-income housing in the region, the project would benefit both cities as well as other residents in the region. West Palm Beach officials said they were agreeable to assisting in the project if further investigation during the next week does not reveal any potential problems for the city.

According to Stephan H. Alex, chairman of Southmark Development Corp., one of the co-developers of the proposed project, the unusual financing arrangement was used in Texas recently, when Fort Worth applied for the grant money on behalf of a smaller, neighboring community.

That arrangement was used by the developer of the Texas project, Briscoe Companies of Fort Worth, which is the other co-developer of the proposed Wedgewood Plaza project in Riviera Beach.

The project, planned for 53 acres at Congress Avenue and Blue Heron Boulevard, would need the federal grant money to pay about 25 percent of the $20 milion development cost.

With the grant money, the developers say, they can keep development cost down to the point that the rents could be affordable to people with low and moderate incomes.

Alex said the rents for the apartments are projected to be $340 monthly for a one-bedroom unit, $400 for a two-bedroom unit and $460 for a three-bedroom unit.

Earlier Monday, the developers received initial approval from the Palm Beach County Housing Finance Authority for a $16 million bond issue to cover the major cost of the development.